Don't Sweat Taking a Vacation

Taking a break from exercise doesn?t have to be a traumatic event. In fact, it may be good for you to allow your body and mind to recover. We often get preoccupied with scheduling our lives around the gym and feel bad when we don?t get a chance to burn a few calories. We look for vacation places that have a place for us to get in our workout and will stop at nothing to make sure we keep our schedule for fear we will decondition ourselves. We should welcome the rest at times.
Rest is the most overlooked aspect of training. In order for our bodies to continue to improve, we need to vary the intensity of our training and then give it a chance to rebuild itself. The overload principle in training states that you must stress your body further than you have before in order to see fitness improvements. Rest is then required to allow our body to adapt to this increased stimulus. Without proper rest, we will reach a plateau and our fitness progress will stall. There are also limits to the amount of stress our bodies can handle before it begins to break down.
Consider your vacation as not an absence from exercise, but a chance to allow your body to rebuild itself and adapt to the training loads you have placed upon yourself. You may find you come back stronger both physically and mentally.
blog by Ralph Mlady for community.spinning.com 05/31/2011